LATE SCHOLAR OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD; PROFESSOR OF LOGIC London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1890 [All rights reserved] PREFACE. IN preparing this edition I have been much indebted to Mr. Morley's two Essays on Burke, and to his account of Diderot and the Encyclopædists. The description of the state of France, given in the Introduction, is based upon De Tocqueville's L'Ancien Régime et la Revolution and upon Arthur Young's Travels. I have borrowed a few explanations, and some references requiring books which I could not obtain in India, from Mr. Payne's notes upon Burke's Reflections. The poetical versions of the passages quoted by Burke from Horace and Virgil are taken from Dryden, Conington, and Martin. INTRODUCTION. EDMUND BURKE was born at Dublin, at the end of 1728 or the beginning of 1729. He was first elected to Parliament, as member for the borough of Wendover, at the end of 1765, the year in which George Grenville was dismissed from office. Grenville was succeeded by Lord Rockingham, the head of a party which Burke regarded as the most honest and patriotic party in the country, and which he was largely instrumental in keeping together. Rockingham remained in office for one year and twenty days. After him came the Chatham ministry. On Chatham going to the House of Lords, the Duke of Grafton led the ministry, and after him. Lord North, who remained at the head of affairs for twelve years, from 1770 1782. The opening years of the reign of George III. were years of disturbance and difficulty. The elevation of Bute to the premiership, after the disgrace of Pitt and the dismissal of Newcastle, had produced a violent prejudice against the Scotch. Then came the troubles with America. There was, besides, the excitement caused by the affair of Wilkes. It seemed likely that the majority of the House of Commons would arrogate to itself the right of determining whom the constituencies might elect to sit as their |